Translation of public signs from Chinese into English is a cross-cultural activity. Therefore, the translation quality decides whether the communication goes smooth or not. The author has made an investigation into the situation of the C-E translation of public signs in Panzhihua City and found many problems of the existing translation. In combination with some general principles of translation of public signs, this paper mainly classifies and analyzes some typical errors of the translation.
The paper is composed of four parts. The first part is an introduction to the definition and practical features of public signs. The second simply introduces some basic principles of translation like language style, pragmatic meaning and so on. The third states the present situation of public signs in China, especially in Panzhihua. The last part mainly analyzes some representative grammatical, lexical and cultural errors, putting forward some related suggestions.
Key Words
translation of public signs; cross-cultural communication; quality